Which to use
“wildly” is an adverb and “wilds” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,154
- “wildly” frequency rank
- #33,088
- “wilds” frequency rank
- 44242
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wildly | wilds |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | In a wild, uncontrolled manner. | plural of wild |
Letter map: wildly vs wilds
Shared letters muted; letters that set wildly and wilds apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. wildly runs 6 letters (CVCCCV) against wilds's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Grammar separator: wildly vs wilds
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: wildly is anadverb and wildsanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44242, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wildly is recorded at frequency rank #11,154, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈwaɪldli/. wilds is at rank #33,088, tagged as anoun.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 44242, this pair ranks #232,423 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of wildly vs wilds
Shared letters: dilw. Private to "wildly": y. Private to "wilds": s.
"wildly" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "wilds" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "wildly" and "wilds" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "wildly" or "wilds"?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "wildly" and "wilds".
- Full dictionary entry for "wildly" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wilds" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #232,423 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wildly" and "wilds" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wilds vs wile". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #232,423 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.